The present invention relates generally to educational aids, and more particularly to computer-related educational aids that enhance familiarity with and ease of use of a computer for young children.
The explosion of the Internet and the proliferation of personal computers confirms that the world is truly in the information age. Once only the tool for scientists in research facilities and universities, the personal computer of today may be found in nearly all businesses, most homes, and many schools and preschools. The early introduction, acceptance, and usage of these personal computers has led social psychologists to label the current generation as xe2x80x9cGeneration Dxe2x80x9d for digital. While many adults still find it difficult to stop 12:00 flashing on their home VCRs, kids of today have no problem downloading music, performing research projects, trading e-mails, chatting, etc. on personal computers more powerful than those that landed man on the Moon.
As more and more people utilize personal computers, parents and educators are recognizing the benefits that may be gained through early exposure and usage of these tools with younger and younger children. Indeed, many preschools, kindergartens, and first graders are now routinely being exposed to personal computers in the classroom and well as at home. Unfortunately, while the technology of the microprocessors that drive the computers has advanced significantly over the years, the primary user interface to the computer, the keyboard, has not changed in any significant way in more than a century and a quarter. Indeed, the current design of the QWERTY keyboard was first introduced in 1872 for the express purpose of making typing more difficult, and hence slower, for secretaries in companies. This was needed because of the original design of the typewriter that used long arms driven by the keys to place the type on the paper. If the succeeding letter was typed too quickly after the preceding letter, the arms for these two or more letters could, and often would, become jammed with one another. While digital computers no longer suffer from such a mechanical problem, the design of the present keyboard, which was meant to be difficult to use by experienced secretaries and typists in businesses, remains with us to this day.
Unfortunately, this carryover QWERTY keyboard design presents an additional problem to the early computer education of a child. However, this problem is much more subtle than commonly recognized problem presented by the non-alphabetical layout of the keys. This problem exists not because of the physical position of the keys, but because this carryover QWERTY design does not take into consideration the way that preschool through first grade students are taught reading, writing, and, more specifically, the alphabet. Most preschool and elementary school programs uniformly teach these young students lower case letters first. That is, a child""s early exposure to the written word takes place in the realm of lower case letters, except for the beginning of their names, days of the week, etc. The QWERTY keyboard, quite to the contrary, displays all of the letters of the alphabet in upper case letters. As a result of the mismatch of the child""s early education with lower case letters and the QWERTY keyboard""s exclusive use of upper case letters, a child""s early exposure to the personal computer can become quite confusing and frustrating. This confusion and frustration results with young children because they have not yet mastered the relationship between capital and lower case letters. Yet, they are asked to enter data that is given to them in lower case letters into the computer using the keys that display only upper case letters. For many an early leaner, the glyphs that make up the upper case letters are completely foreign to them.
As an example of this subtle, but nearly crippling problem, consider the operation of most educational software programs. To allow tracking of a child""s performance, these programs typically require that a child first xe2x80x9clog inxe2x80x9d by typing his or her name. However, a student named xe2x80x9cSierraxe2x80x9d would have a very difficult time finding the letters of her name on the QWERTY keyboard without a complete mastery of the relationship between upper case and lower case letters. That is, the student would need to type the keys displaying xe2x80x9cSIERRAxe2x80x9d, even though most educators do not allow a child to write her name in this fashion. As such, the QWERTY keyboard has already undermined the educator""s ability to teach the child the proper usage of letters to form her name, and has caused some level of dissonance in the child who knows that such usage is improper. However, the dissonance and confusion does not stop there. Once the student has found and typed the keys marked xe2x80x9cSIERRAxe2x80x9d, she would look at the computer screen only to see her name displayed using the letters xe2x80x9csierraxe2x80x9d because these young students do not have any knowledge of the shift key. This also causes confusion and dissonance in the child because she also knows that this is not the correct way to write her name.
This is a doubled headed problem resulting from the carryover design of the QWERTY keyboard. The student first struggles to find the letters (displayed as all upper case on the keys) he or she needs to log in to the educational program to begin the lesson, then looks up only to see his or her name is displayed differently (in all lower case letters) on the screen than what he or she just entered on the keyboard. This apparent disconnect between the data entry device of the keyboard and the data display device of the monitor is quite confusing for the early leaner. These students often become quite frustrated since they have not even logged in to the educational program, and yet they feel that they are already struggling to understand. This problem is further compounded because many of the early educational software packages also use lower case letters to teach early reading. However, when the program asks a student to find, e.g., the letter xe2x80x9cjxe2x80x9d it does not appear anywhere on the student""s keyboard (however an adult readily recognizes that the xe2x80x9cJxe2x80x9d will properly satisfy the program""s request).
Because the benefits of teaching lower case letters to early learners first, it would be foolish to suggest that the entire educational system will be changed to accommodate this problem resulting from the design of the QWERTY keyboard. Therefore, there exists a need for early learners in preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary school for a keyboard that takes into account an early learner""s knowledge of letters. Also, since many school districts across the country have already purchased computer hardware, there exists a need in the art to virtually and apparently modify existing keyboards owned by the schools to aid the early learner in acquiring computer skills by reducing any unnecessary frustrations resulting from a keyboard that was originally designed to be used only by adults.
In view of the above, an embodiment of the present invention presents a computer-related teaching apparatus for use with a computer keyboard and a computer comprising a keyboard overlay adapted to cover at least a portion of the computer keyboard. This keyboard overlay has a plurality of individual key-accommodating structures, each having at least a transparent upper surface to allow printed indicia on a key of the keyboard to be visible through the surface. Preferably, at least a portion of the transparent upper surfaces of the key-accommodating structures that correspond to alphabet keys of the keyboard has a lower-case letter positioned thereon in a non-interfering location relative to a position of the printed indicia on the alphabet key.
In one embodiment of the invention, the printed indicia on the alphabet keys of the keyboard is positioned in a first quadrant of the key, and the lower-case letter is positioned in a fourth quadrant of the transparent upper surface of the key-accommodating structures. Alternatively, the lower-case letter is positioned in a second quadrant of the transparent upper surface of the key-accommodating structures. As a further alternative, the lower-case letter is positioned in a third quadrant of the transparent upper surface of the key-accommodating structures.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the teaching apparatus is used in an educational environment that uses a font style with which to teach children. In this embodiment the lower-case letters are rendered in that font style. In many preschools and elementary schools the font style used to teach the children is D""Nealian, and therefore the lower-case letters are rendered in D""Nealian. In other preschools and elementary schools the font style used to teach children is Zaner Bloser, and therefore the lower-case letters are rendered in Zaner Bloser.
In an embodiment of the present invention, the lower-case letter is positioned on an under surface of the transparent upper surface of the individual key-accommodating structure. Preferably, a transparent protective layer is attached to the under surface of the transparent upper surface of the individual key-accommodating structure such that the lower-case letter is positioned between the transparent upper surface and the transparent protective layer. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the keyboard overlay is adapted to cover a whole of the keyboard.
An alternate preferred embodiment of the present invention presents a computer-related teaching apparatus for use with young children who do not have a complete mastery of a relationship between upper-case and lower-case letters. This embodiment comprising a computer keyboard having a plurality of individual keys, at least a portion of the individual keys including a glyph of an upper-case letter and a glyph of an associated lower-case letter. In one embodiment, the glyph of an upper-case letter and the glyph of the lower-case letter are positioned in a horizontal relationship to one another in a plane of the keys. Alternatively, the glyph of an upper-case letter and the glyph of the lower-case letter are positioned in a diagonal relationship to one another in a plane of the keys. As a further alternative, the glyph of an upper-case letter and the glyph of the lower-case letter are positioned in a vertical relationship to one another in a plane of the keys.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the glyph of the upper-case letter is positioned on the keys, and the glyph of the lower-case letter is positioned on a layer that is overlaid on the keys. Preferably, the layer is adhesively applied on the individual keys. Alternatively, the layer is formed into a keyboard overlay having a plurality of individual key-accommodating structures having at least a transparent upper surface to allow the glyph of an upper-case letter on the keys to be visible. The glyph of a lower-case letter is positioned on the layer in a non-interfering location relative to the position of the glyph of the upper-case letter on the keys.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, a method of enabling a person who does not have a complete mastery of a relationship between upper-case and lower-case letters to enter data into a computer is presented. This method comprises the step of providing a data entry device that displays both upper and lower case letters in association with one another. In one embodiment, this step of providing a data entry device that displays both upper and lower case letters in association with one anther comprises the step of providing a computer keyboard, and a computer keyboard overlay having a plurality of individual key-accommodating structures. Preferably, each structure has at least a transparent upper surface to allow printed indicia on a key of the computer keyboard to be visible therethrough. At least a portion of the transparent upper surfaces of the key-accommodating structures that correspond to alphabet keys of the computer keyboard has a lower-case letter positioned thereon in a non-interfering location relative to a position of the printed indicia on the alphabet key.
In one embodiment of this method, the step of providing a data entry device that displays both upper and lower case letters in association with one another comprises the step of providing a computer keyboard having a plurality of individual keys, at least a portion of the individual keys including a glyph of an upper-case letter and a glyph of an associated lower-case letter. Alternatively, this step comprises the step of applying transparent stickers having a lower-case letter displayed thereon to associated alphabet keys of a computer keyboard in a position such that both upper and lower case letters are displayed. As a further alternative, this step comprises the step of providing a computer keyboard, and a computer keyboard overlay having a plurality of individual key-accommodating structures. Preferably, each structure associated with an alphabet key of the keyboard has an upper-case and a lower-case letter positioned thereon.
In an alternate embodiment of the present invention, a method of enabling a child who does not have a complete mastery of a relationship between upper-case and lower-case letters to enter data into a computer via a standard computer keyboard is presented. This method comprises the step of providing a keyboard overlay having a plurality of individual key-accommodating structures for accommodating at least a portion of the keys of the computer keyboard. Preferably, the keyboard overlay displays both upper and lower case letters in association with one another.
Other objectives, advantages, and embodiments of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.